Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1887-04-20
A NERVOUS MANS VAIL.
PEOPLE WHO THOUGHTLEsSLY SET
OTHER FOLKS NERVES ON EDGE.

The Aggravating Habits to Which Some
of Natures Noblemcn Are Addicted.
Biting the Nails-"The Devils Tattoo"
Boy and blackboard.
The other day called on gentleman
for whom have the highest regard and
who has on several occasions proved to
me that he is one of natures noblcmen;
man who never by any means lets his left
hand know what his right is doing, and
whose right hand is continually doing
good, and yet before l left him could
have taken both his right and left hands
and cheerfully chopped them off, and this
is why: During the entire interview his
good right hand kept cracking the joints
of the fingers of his equally good left
hand and vice versa. Now, II there is one
thing more than another that puts my
nerves Oh edge aRd makes my blood run
cold it is to have Il man sit alongside of
me and crack his fingers, and consequently
during that whole interview was III con-
tinual struggle between my desire to
listen to my good friends talk and my
other desire to strangle HIM Yet he,
good, easy soul, knew nothing of this, and
went on chatting and cracking, utterly
unconscious of the suppressed volcano that
threatened every moment to burst and
oyerwhelm him.
AN AGGRAVATING HABIT.
Now, don't believe am any moro nerv-
Gus than the rest of my kind, and yet,
after l left my friend, l thought of SO
many petty annoyanCeS like this that dis
turb my peace that | fairly wonder that
have lived as long as l have without hay
ing murdered somebody. For instance, l
know man whose life must be i'll danger
all the time because of an aggravating
habit he has of biting his nails. When
ever he talks to me and begins to chew
his fingers l have to turn my head away,
because while | look at him | feel as
though it is my nails he is biting and
sensation goes through me as though
every bite he took pulled out my nerves
with it, Then there is another dear friend
of mine who often drops into my office for
a chat, and who invariably sits down at
my desk and begins to beat the devil S
tattoo on it. | stand it for Il while until
I unconsciously join him in the ticndiah
music, and then away we go with our
dreary rub-a-dub until everybody i'll the
room rises in revolt and demands an in
slant cessation Of the awful noise.
How many men there are who cannot
y
They generally prefer a button on your
coat, or if there is none handy then the
lapel will do. They will pull and haul at
you until your only hope lies in the hon
esty of your tailor, and you almost wish
that he had put in some bad stitches, so
that something will give way and you can
make your escape from the bore. Not
long ago somebody gave me little silver
pencil, which I in my pride hung on my
| watch chain. And then my trouble began.
Two out of every three persons l met
grabbed that pencil and played with it,
| pulling it out and shutting it and demand
ing to know what it was for and how
got it, etc. In about two weeks it was en-
tirely worn out and perfectly useless. l
have since been thinking seriously of get
| ting some sort of pocket electric battery,
and whenever any of my friends begin to
| daily with the watch charm turn on the
| current and let him have it just to show
him that his fingers are where they should
not be. Some people, suppose, would
think | was wrong in doing this, but let
them mount a pencil like l did and I'll
guarantee that they will cheerfully adopt
| the electric battery cure.
TwIRLING HIS THUMBS.
Among the other things that make my
| life miserable l hold chief the man who
sits opposite me in the street cars and con-
| tinually twirls his thumbs. l cannot help
| watching him; and I remember one day
how I astonished one gentleman who had
been twirling away for half an hour by
leaning across the car and asking him as
a personal favor to reverse the motion, as
I could not stand the way they were turn
| ing any longer. He looked at me as though
! T l.; ooH hiS hon6c
| in his pockets. Have you ever sat in
room where silence was only broken by
the scratch of q bad pen in somebody's
hands? Nice, is it not?
l knew newspaper man whose little
| boy is the proud possessor of black
board and takes great deal of pleasure
in writing on it with chalk. Now, that
| journalist loves his son, and yet he says
that whenever that boy, that chalk and
that blackboard come into contact the
sound produced is simply maddening, and
he has either to put an end to it at once
or incontinently flee the room in order to
save his mind from utter destruction.
Everybody has experienced the fiendish
snorer, but as most everybody shores
anyway there is always q chance of get
ting even with somebody, even if it's only
the wife of your bosom. There are some
persons in this world who, but for bad
habit they have Of filling their sentences
with 'dy' see?'' or asking the utterly
idiotic question, SIS that so?' might be
worthy citizens of the community. I
don't know many things more aggravat
ing than to have man say by sees'
with every other word he utters or reply
to everything tell him with an utterly
fatuous SIS that so?''-"Observer" in
Philadelphia Call.